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The Wildlands
From the award winning author of The Lightkeepers comes a page turning new novel that explores the bond between siblings and the animal instincts that threaten to destroy them.
When a Category 5 tornado ravaged Mercy, Oklahoma, no family in the small town lost more than the McClouds. Their home and farm were instantly demolished, and orphaned siblings Darlene, Jane, and Cora made media headlines. This relentless national attention and the tornado’s aftermath caused great tension with their brother, Tucker, who soon abandoned his sisters and disappeared.
On the three-year anniversary of the tornado, a cosmetics factory outside of Mercy is bombed, and the lab animals trapped within are released. Tucker reappears, injured from the blast, and seeks the help of nine-year-old Cora. Caught up in the thrall of her charismatic brother, whom she has desperately missed, Cora agrees to accompany Tucker on a cross-country mission to make war on human civilization.
Cora becomes her brother’s unwitting accomplice, taking on a new identity while engaging in acts of escalating violence. Darlene works with Mercy police to find her siblings, leading to an unexpected showdown at a zoo in Southern California. The Wildlands is another remarkable literary thriller from critically acclaimed writer Abby Geni, one that examines what happens when one family becomes trapped in the tenuous space between the human and animal worlds.
When a Category 5 tornado ravaged Mercy, Oklahoma, no family in the small town lost more than the McClouds. Their home and farm were instantly demolished, and orphaned siblings Darlene, Jane, and Cora made media headlines. This relentless national attention and the tornado’s aftermath caused great tension with their brother, Tucker, who soon abandoned his sisters and disappeared.
On the three-year anniversary of the tornado, a cosmetics factory outside of Mercy is bombed, and the lab animals trapped within are released. Tucker reappears, injured from the blast, and seeks the help of nine-year-old Cora. Caught up in the thrall of her charismatic brother, whom she has desperately missed, Cora agrees to accompany Tucker on a cross-country mission to make war on human civilization.
Cora becomes her brother’s unwitting accomplice, taking on a new identity while engaging in acts of escalating violence. Darlene works with Mercy police to find her siblings, leading to an unexpected showdown at a zoo in Southern California. The Wildlands is another remarkable literary thriller from critically acclaimed writer Abby Geni, one that examines what happens when one family becomes trapped in the tenuous space between the human and animal worlds.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 2018
About the author
Abby Geni
10 books245 followersAbby Geni is the author of The Lightkeepers, winner of the 2016 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Fiction and the inaugural Chicago Review of Books Awards for Best Fiction, and The Last Animal (2013), an Indies Introduce Debut Writers Selection and a finalist for the Orion Book Award. Her short stories have won first place in the Glimmer Train Fiction Open and the Chautauqua Contest and have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Geni is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a recipient of the Iowa Fellowship. Her website is www.abbygeni.com.
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November 3, 2022
This is the story of the summer I disappeared - Cora McCloud
I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more - Dorothy Gale
…the tornado was not an act of God, but an act of nature. The wild had come to Mercy that day, as she and her siblings cowered in the bunker, the full force of the wild had roared above them, erasing everything it touched.Cora McCloud, an adult now, recounts the summer when her brother, Tucker, invited her to join him on what he claimed would be an excellent adventure. It all begins when a very Oklahoman (and Kansan) event shattered the McCloud family. A piece of bad luck in the form of a killer tornado made orphans of the McCloud kids, catching their father before he could make it to shelter. ( I remember Tucker telling me that luck was no lady; luck was a mean drunk who didn’t know when to stop punching.) Mom had not survived Cora’s birth, so it fell to the oldest, Darlene, eighteen, to look after the family. Buh-bye college. Seventeen-year-old Tucker, unable to cope, takes off a few months after the disaster, after a fight with Darlene, falling in with eco-warriors, but has a falling out with them as well and heads home several years later. A local cosmetics plant had been producing noxious chemicals, legally, but the tornado did an excellent job of spreading the stuff around, making neighborhoods uninhabitable, with no one being held responsible for footing the bill or taking care of the cleanup. There were also a lot of animals on the property, used in lab testing. It’s enough to focus the attention of the peripatetic Tucker. Pipe bombs are planted. Damage is done. And Tucker is now a wanted man. Thing is, he also has an amazingly sweet nature, has a way with animals of all sorts, horses in particular, and a special bond with Cora. He asks her to go away with him (”It’s time for magic, Cora,” he said. “Let’s leave this place behind.”) and she signs on to follow his particular and very winding yellow brick road.
Abby Geni - image from Ksiazka.net (a Polish publication)
There are two stories in play here. We alternate, pretty much, between Cora’s tale of her time with Tucker, and Darlene’s struggle to keep the family afloat. It takes all she has. Hostile townspeople do not help. After the storm, the media had descended on the town, and identified the remaining McClouds as The Saddest Family in Mercy, surely an ironic name for a town that seems pretty light on that form of humanity. You do what you have to in order to survive. The McClouds pick up some money from all the coverage, which allows them to live large, if you consider their trailer a castle, Darlene’s gig as an assistant manager at a grocery store a cushy sinecure, and her loss of a college education, somehow, a benefit. People can really suck sometimes.
Everything native to Oklahoma was tough and warlike. Only the strong survived here. Our snakes came with venom and a warning signal. Our insects were armored against predators and dehydration. Our birds possess talons, telescopic vision and hollow bones. These animals were designed for hardship. All weakness had been driven out of their genetic lineage by the dust storms, the droughts, and the tornadoes.There is some celestial writing here. Geni has poetry in her pen, particularly when writing about nature. And a feel for craft when she applies the images she describes so beautifully to her characters. Here’s an example:
The night was awash with the screech of cicadas. These insects had reached the molting stage of their annual transformation. They first emerged in May as sluggish, flightless, dun-colored beetles, but after enough exposure to heat and sunlight, they would undergo an unpleasant metamorphosis. First they would find a tree or a house or a telephone pole and start to climb—slowly, clumsily, driven by mindless instinct—until they reached a particular height known only to themselves. They would then cling tight, hold still, and gradually become translucent. Their outer skin would slough away. They would burst out through the napes of their former shells and rise into the sky as steel-spun creature with wings as loud as joy buzzers. They left their spent husks everywhere.Geni follows this line of thought to the changes Cora and Tucker are experiencing. They alter their outward appearance to slip beneath police notice, but it nicely reflects an internal metamorphosis as well.
The tornado was a gift, Tucker often said. It opened my eyes. Over the past few weeks, he had explained this to me. Most people, he said, were not capable of understanding the plight of the animals. They were too sheltered to comprehend it. Too safe. Even if they knew the facts and figures, they could not imagine the full measure of that kind of devastation.The McCloud kids were all changed by the devastation wrought by the tornado, but, on their summer-long journey, are Tucker and Cora sloughing off useless shells and becoming more advanced, more aware people? It remains to be seen. Tucker has already chosen a path of violence. Will Cora be swept up by his charisma, by the fairy tales he tells every night of their day’s adventures?
That’s how I used to be too, Tucker said. The tornado changed me. It had stripped away the façade of human civilization. It reminded him that he was an animal too. The scientific terms—loss of habitat, dead zone, on the brink—were not just words anymore. He knew that what it felt like from the inside now.
Cora is pretty much the definition of an innocent caught up in events outside her control, despite her making an overt decision to ditch the strictures of her Mercy family for the adventure of the road with a warm, fascinating character. Twelve-year-olds are not responsible for such things. We are pulled along with her in her adventures with Tucker and become increasingly alarmed and concerned for her moral as well as physical safety.
I began The Wildlands with this idea: a twosome on a crime spree. But I didn’t want to explore romantic love or even friendship; those stories have already been told. I wanted to write about siblings. The relationship between siblings—its power and effect—often goes unexamined. Then I began to wonder what a crime spree would be like for a child. How would it shape her mind? How would it alter her identity? What kind of person would she be afterward? That led me to Cora, and soon after, Tucker. - from Chicago Review of Books interviewDarlene has suffered unspeakable losses, but has stepped up and done her absolute best to take care of her family. She may not have Tucker’s free-spirit energy, but she is more than pulling her weight under insane conditions. So, we have two, maybe three, people here to really, really care about. And you will.
In Tucker, I wanted to write a character who is right in his beliefs but wrong in his actions. He has the facts, he’s fighting for animal rights, and he talks about justice and saving the world. How could Cora not fall under his spell? How could she discern what’s right about his cause but wrong about his choices? Honestly, I agree with Tucker sometimes myself. I’m not on board with his methodology or his violence, but his sense of urgency is something I share. - from the Tinhouse interviewThere is considerable concern here for matters ecological. Tucker may have gone too far with his actions, but his concerns are not bizarre. Is it possible to care too much, or too immaturely? There is a look at the wastefulness of land use in Oklahoma, but also at the remnant wildness of it. Geni offers a nice consideration of the meaning of the title, which I will not spoil here. It is moving, and effective. There is a bit on what are considered Sooner toughness characteristics, although the historical telling made it sound to me more like a celebration of cheating than anything else.
In The Wildlands…I’m writing explicitly about what’s happening to the environment. It’s more urgent than ever. The changes are coming faster than scientists predicted, and the government’s lack of response is terrifying. The Wildlands talks in no uncertain terms about the fact that we are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction on our planet. During the previous mass extinctions on Earth—caused by meteors or volcanoes or natural disasters—up to 90% of all life on earth perished. It’s happening again right now, and this time we’re the cause. - from the Tinhouse interviewCora suffers identity slippage while on the road with Tucker, a real existential crisis. We want her to come back to herself, but there is no certainty she will.
On some level, I understood that something irrevocable had happened. I had crossed a threshold I could not come back from. I did not know yet what it meant for me, but I could feel the transformation; I was changing deep inside, at a level beneath flesh, beneath words.Needing to find out what will happen to Cora, (will she vanish into a new identity?) Tucker, and Darlene will keep you turning the pages. Challenges, real and manufactured, are faced, or not, overcome, or not. The McClouds, to the extent possible, try to be the best people they can be, whether that means huge personal sacrifice in order to step in for late parents, or engaging in various forms of eco-terrorism in order to try righting a global imbalance, whether that means allowing the media to tell their story as a way of keeping food on the table, or kowtowing to town disapproval of what, it is claimed, is profiting from the misery of the whole town, whether that means trying to protect a wayward sibling by keeping information from the police, or trying to protect a wayward sibling by sharing information with the police.
Cora engages in no heel-clicking to whisk herself back home to the familiar and newly appreciated at her journey’s end. The magic of her time with Tucker was episodic, and, like Dorothy Gale’s, also fraught with existential peril. There are damaged souls in the Oz through which she travels, some of that damage occurring at her hands. There are ordeals and trials, physically and morally. The story comes on you like a sudden storm, lifts you up here, then drops you down there. It is an amazing ride, fast-paced, engaging, soulful, rich with beautiful description, and social and moral perspectives. And the climax to the story is as gripping as it is inevitable. Abby Geni is an amazing young writer whose technicolor future has already arrived. No directional rainbow required.
Review first posted ��� October 26, 2018
Publication date – September 4, 2018
I received this book from Counterpoint in return for an honest look. Would have had this out a couple of weeks back, but was laid low by a tummy bug, and posted no review (Oh, the horror!) that week. No animals were harmed in the writing of this review. Ok, I had to toss my editor off the desk more than a few times as he cannot seem to grasp the concept that his large feline self and my keyboard cannot occupy the same space at the same time and both remain operational. Sorry, Blue. But other than that…
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal and FB pages
Geni’s site is a cornucopia of information. For example, there are links to seven interviews. I will not duplicate that. So the list below is limited to interviews quoted in the review. There are also links to several of her stories. Check out her site. You won’t be sorry.
Interviews
-----Tinhouse.com - Writing a Disappearing World: A Conversation with Abby Geni - by Liz von Klemperer
-----Chicago Review of Books - Abby Geni Tackles Eco-Terrorism in ‘The Wildlands’ - by Rachel Leon
If you liked this…
Some other novels with environmental issues
-----Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
-----When the Killing’s Done by T.C. Boyle
-----Inferno by Dan Brown
-----Barkskins by Annie Proulx
-----State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Songs
-----Somewhere Over the Rainbow
-----Born to be Wild
September 20, 2018
An easy, deliberate 5 stars!
In the prologue of The Wildlands, a family is quickly preparing for a Category 5 tornado. They live on a farm and are working to secure the animals and themselves before disaster potentially strikes. I read The Wildlands as a hurricane was leaving an indelible and devastating path through my home state, and Abby Geni’s adept writing had me viscerally preparing for the tornado with the family.
The McCloud children live in Mercy, Oklahoma. They lose everything in the tornado and wind up orphaned and living in a trailer. These siblings, Cora, Jane, Darlene, and Tucker, are developed in three-dimension. You can almost hear them breathing; they are executed so well.
Tucker leaves his family behind but reappears years later after a bomb goes off in a cosmetics factory near Mercy. The lab animals are released during the bombing. Tucker now needs nine-year-old Cora’s help, and they set off together on a thrilling mission of violence and retribution.
Darlene assists the police in finding her siblings at a California zoo. Tucker is committed to saving the lives of animals, and he views his mission as a war.
The Wildlands is a literary-eco-suspense/thriller. A tension was felt throughout the story that kept me engaged and invested whether it was the tornado or the set-up of one of Cora and Tucker’s acts of vengeance. Geni’s prose is like butter- smooth and deliberate balanced with ample description. I compulsively re-read passages to absorb their radiance.
I am awe-struck by this smart book and everything accomplished by this talented author, and I cannot wait to read my copy of The Lightkeepers. The Wildlands captures “wild” in every sense of the word.
Thank you to Counterpoint Press for the invitation to read and review and the physical ARC. All opinions are my own.
My review can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
In the prologue of The Wildlands, a family is quickly preparing for a Category 5 tornado. They live on a farm and are working to secure the animals and themselves before disaster potentially strikes. I read The Wildlands as a hurricane was leaving an indelible and devastating path through my home state, and Abby Geni’s adept writing had me viscerally preparing for the tornado with the family.
The McCloud children live in Mercy, Oklahoma. They lose everything in the tornado and wind up orphaned and living in a trailer. These siblings, Cora, Jane, Darlene, and Tucker, are developed in three-dimension. You can almost hear them breathing; they are executed so well.
Tucker leaves his family behind but reappears years later after a bomb goes off in a cosmetics factory near Mercy. The lab animals are released during the bombing. Tucker now needs nine-year-old Cora’s help, and they set off together on a thrilling mission of violence and retribution.
Darlene assists the police in finding her siblings at a California zoo. Tucker is committed to saving the lives of animals, and he views his mission as a war.
The Wildlands is a literary-eco-suspense/thriller. A tension was felt throughout the story that kept me engaged and invested whether it was the tornado or the set-up of one of Cora and Tucker’s acts of vengeance. Geni’s prose is like butter- smooth and deliberate balanced with ample description. I compulsively re-read passages to absorb their radiance.
I am awe-struck by this smart book and everything accomplished by this talented author, and I cannot wait to read my copy of The Lightkeepers. The Wildlands captures “wild” in every sense of the word.
Thank you to Counterpoint Press for the invitation to read and review and the physical ARC. All opinions are my own.
My review can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
September 27, 2018
”But it was Tucker who worried Darlene the most. Something was happening to him--something she could not identify. He was speeding up, growing more intense by the day. Their great loss had created a mechanism inside his person--buried in his chest or the core of his brain--and it was always humming. She could practically see the vibration of the engine beneath his skin.”
It all begins with a storm. The swirling finger of a vengeful god spins down out of the sky and destroys Mercy, Oklahoma. The McCloud family has already suffered loss with the death of their mother, but now they find themselves orphans and homeless. They are the unluckiest family in a county of unlucky people. ”I remembered Tucker telling me that luck was no lady; luck was a mean drunk who didn’t know when to stop punching.”
Tucker always sees things differently. After the storm, it is as if something tears loose in him that has been held together by slender tendrils of what we call normal. He was always high strung an emotional whirlwind who was cursed with feelings that ran too deeply. ”My Category Five Brother.”
Darlene is the oldest, and when this storm takes away the McCloud house and their father, it also blows away all of her dreams of what she has planned to become. She sells their story to every news organization that is willing to pay. This creates conflict with Tucker, who sees it as unseemly. All Darlene is trying to do is get enough money to buy a dilapidated trailer and keep the family together.
I grew up in a small town so I understand the inherent jealousies, the prideful assertions about what is right and wrong, the cliquishness of the church going crowd, and a misguided concept that they are the righteous and all those folks in the big cities are fools on a one way express train to Hell. Small town values, my ass. The town of Mercy might be split on whether Darlene is doing the right thing, but the ones that think it is shameful make sure to let her know how they feel.
Pride is a luxury most can’t afford to buy.
Darlene is stuck in the caldron, trying to keep her two sisters, Jane and Cora, fed and having some kind of normal life. Tucker takes off. The McCloud unit, already destabilized by the missing pieces, now has to adjust to yet another smaller orbit. It is as if a moon has disappeared from the sky.
If truth be known, Tucker wants to bring down the Age of Humans. He would have fit in fine with Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang. He tries to team up with like minded individuals who ultimately disappoint him. Their commitment to saving the Earth is more of a hobby than based on a firm set of convictions. Tucker is untethered from the law. I keep thinking of the American-abolitionist John Brown, who was considered bat shit crazy, but who, through his actions, raised the awareness of the plight of slaves in the South. He forced people in the North, who may have been indifferent, to have to reconsider the issue. James McBride in his National Book Award winning book The Good Lord Bird really brought John Brown alive for me.
Maybe we just have to have a Tucker McCloud or a John Brown come along occasionally who will shake us out of our indifference and have us start to wonder, why is this cause so important to these seemingly insane men? Are they insane or are they the only people seeing clearly? Just by forcing people to ask WHY, the needle moves from indifference to an openness to wanting to understand.
When I lived in Arizona, I knew some people who were members of Earth First! This was an environmental awareness group started by Dave Foreman, who was inspired by Abbey’s book The Monkey Wrench Gang to become more involved in the fight to save the environment. They were considered terrorists (before that word took on even more meaning) by the FBI. I guess, if inspiring terror in the greedy capitalist pricks who were clear cutting timber in Arizona is considered terrorism, then yes, they were. It was a doomed organization, just like most environmental efforts have proven to be. The government squashed them.
Tucker, unable to find the properly motivated partner, finally decides that he needs someone who can be taught his vision of the world. He convinces his nine year old sister Cora to come on his quest to save the world. He can say he needs help, but what he really needs is a witness. He needs someone to observe and understand exactly what he is trying to do. ”Studies showed that 80% of people on the lam traveled west.” Well, Tucker is no exception. They are going to create havoc from Oklahoma to California.
This was a solid four star book for me until Abby Geni let me spend some significant time with Tucker McCloud. You can disagree with the young man, but you can not deny that he is committed to what he believes. He sees the end of days, but in some ways, just the fact that he chooses to fight back shows that he still thinks the tide can turn in favor of the Earth. He isn’t spouting rhetoric in some classroom in a university. He is creating the smoke and walking through the center of it, limping and grinning.
I also really enjoyed Abby Geni’s book The Lightkeepers, which is set on a small island off the coast of San Francisco. She is a storyteller who is shining a light on the plight of nature. She isn’t even crazy like John Brown or insane like Tucker McCloud, but maybe there is a part of her that wishes she were.
My thanks to Counterpoint Press and Megan Fishmann who sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
It all begins with a storm. The swirling finger of a vengeful god spins down out of the sky and destroys Mercy, Oklahoma. The McCloud family has already suffered loss with the death of their mother, but now they find themselves orphans and homeless. They are the unluckiest family in a county of unlucky people. ”I remembered Tucker telling me that luck was no lady; luck was a mean drunk who didn’t know when to stop punching.”
Tucker always sees things differently. After the storm, it is as if something tears loose in him that has been held together by slender tendrils of what we call normal. He was always high strung an emotional whirlwind who was cursed with feelings that ran too deeply. ”My Category Five Brother.”
Darlene is the oldest, and when this storm takes away the McCloud house and their father, it also blows away all of her dreams of what she has planned to become. She sells their story to every news organization that is willing to pay. This creates conflict with Tucker, who sees it as unseemly. All Darlene is trying to do is get enough money to buy a dilapidated trailer and keep the family together.
I grew up in a small town so I understand the inherent jealousies, the prideful assertions about what is right and wrong, the cliquishness of the church going crowd, and a misguided concept that they are the righteous and all those folks in the big cities are fools on a one way express train to Hell. Small town values, my ass. The town of Mercy might be split on whether Darlene is doing the right thing, but the ones that think it is shameful make sure to let her know how they feel.
Pride is a luxury most can’t afford to buy.
Darlene is stuck in the caldron, trying to keep her two sisters, Jane and Cora, fed and having some kind of normal life. Tucker takes off. The McCloud unit, already destabilized by the missing pieces, now has to adjust to yet another smaller orbit. It is as if a moon has disappeared from the sky.
If truth be known, Tucker wants to bring down the Age of Humans. He would have fit in fine with Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang. He tries to team up with like minded individuals who ultimately disappoint him. Their commitment to saving the Earth is more of a hobby than based on a firm set of convictions. Tucker is untethered from the law. I keep thinking of the American-abolitionist John Brown, who was considered bat shit crazy, but who, through his actions, raised the awareness of the plight of slaves in the South. He forced people in the North, who may have been indifferent, to have to reconsider the issue. James McBride in his National Book Award winning book The Good Lord Bird really brought John Brown alive for me.
Maybe we just have to have a Tucker McCloud or a John Brown come along occasionally who will shake us out of our indifference and have us start to wonder, why is this cause so important to these seemingly insane men? Are they insane or are they the only people seeing clearly? Just by forcing people to ask WHY, the needle moves from indifference to an openness to wanting to understand.
When I lived in Arizona, I knew some people who were members of Earth First! This was an environmental awareness group started by Dave Foreman, who was inspired by Abbey’s book The Monkey Wrench Gang to become more involved in the fight to save the environment. They were considered terrorists (before that word took on even more meaning) by the FBI. I guess, if inspiring terror in the greedy capitalist pricks who were clear cutting timber in Arizona is considered terrorism, then yes, they were. It was a doomed organization, just like most environmental efforts have proven to be. The government squashed them.
Tucker, unable to find the properly motivated partner, finally decides that he needs someone who can be taught his vision of the world. He convinces his nine year old sister Cora to come on his quest to save the world. He can say he needs help, but what he really needs is a witness. He needs someone to observe and understand exactly what he is trying to do. ”Studies showed that 80% of people on the lam traveled west.” Well, Tucker is no exception. They are going to create havoc from Oklahoma to California.
This was a solid four star book for me until Abby Geni let me spend some significant time with Tucker McCloud. You can disagree with the young man, but you can not deny that he is committed to what he believes. He sees the end of days, but in some ways, just the fact that he chooses to fight back shows that he still thinks the tide can turn in favor of the Earth. He isn’t spouting rhetoric in some classroom in a university. He is creating the smoke and walking through the center of it, limping and grinning.
I also really enjoyed Abby Geni’s book The Lightkeepers, which is set on a small island off the coast of San Francisco. She is a storyteller who is shining a light on the plight of nature. She isn’t even crazy like John Brown or insane like Tucker McCloud, but maybe there is a part of her that wishes she were.
My thanks to Counterpoint Press and Megan Fishmann who sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
February 10, 2019
“The Wildlands”, is a powerful novel.
Blending lyric descriptions - science - natural environmental disasters- human violence - pitch-perfect dialogue - sumptuous prose - important themes - eerie atmosphere - with a cast of characters we become attached to from Mercy, Oklahoma.
It’s one heck of a phenomenal dazzling ride!!!
Abby Geni’s first novel “The Lightkeepers”, blew me away - it’s a ridiculously creative literary thriller.
ABBY CAN WRITE!!!!
In both books, Abby examines the human and animal world. Both tales are different - but both have mischievous thriller aspects.... leaving us with
humanitarian questions.
In “The Wildlands”,
after 4 siblings become orphans - Tucker, Darlene, Jane, and Cora after a catagory 5 tornado...destroying their farm home —
then a bombing of a cosmetic factory three years later - this family keeps being tested and tested.
We get to know each of the 4 siblings well & their differences ...
But it’s Tucker and his little sister Cora who trek across the country together.
Tucker’s mission is noble - ANIMALS HAVE RIGHTS!
Humans - well?.....Tucker wants to knock off human hierarchy.
Tucker is not beyond violence. It’s as if Tucker was destine to always chase wildlife.
Cora is simply enchanted with her older brother.
Cora recognizes her brothers madness... yet she idolizes him.
She observes him carefully.
“At my side, Tucker was staring across the city with an expression of almost indecent pride. He had shaken off any signs of fear, now basking in the glow of his achievement. I had never seen a human face so suffused with satisfaction.”
I don’t want to give this story away - but you’ll be moved by Darlene - the oldest sibling too.
PUTTY.... readers are putty till the very end.
Like John Irving, Abby Geni, knows what’s she’s doing.
Her ending has purpose - clearly intentional - and heartfelt!!!
OUTSTANDING NOVEL!!!!
... can’t imagine others not liking it.
Blending lyric descriptions - science - natural environmental disasters- human violence - pitch-perfect dialogue - sumptuous prose - important themes - eerie atmosphere - with a cast of characters we become attached to from Mercy, Oklahoma.
It’s one heck of a phenomenal dazzling ride!!!
Abby Geni’s first novel “The Lightkeepers”, blew me away - it’s a ridiculously creative literary thriller.
ABBY CAN WRITE!!!!
In both books, Abby examines the human and animal world. Both tales are different - but both have mischievous thriller aspects.... leaving us with
humanitarian questions.
In “The Wildlands”,
after 4 siblings become orphans - Tucker, Darlene, Jane, and Cora after a catagory 5 tornado...destroying their farm home —
then a bombing of a cosmetic factory three years later - this family keeps being tested and tested.
We get to know each of the 4 siblings well & their differences ...
But it’s Tucker and his little sister Cora who trek across the country together.
Tucker’s mission is noble - ANIMALS HAVE RIGHTS!
Humans - well?.....Tucker wants to knock off human hierarchy.
Tucker is not beyond violence. It’s as if Tucker was destine to always chase wildlife.
Cora is simply enchanted with her older brother.
Cora recognizes her brothers madness... yet she idolizes him.
She observes him carefully.
“At my side, Tucker was staring across the city with an expression of almost indecent pride. He had shaken off any signs of fear, now basking in the glow of his achievement. I had never seen a human face so suffused with satisfaction.”
I don’t want to give this story away - but you’ll be moved by Darlene - the oldest sibling too.
PUTTY.... readers are putty till the very end.
Like John Irving, Abby Geni, knows what’s she’s doing.
Her ending has purpose - clearly intentional - and heartfelt!!!
OUTSTANDING NOVEL!!!!
... can’t imagine others not liking it.
September 27, 2018
An easy 5 stars! The author’s writing is beautiful and completely captivating. All the elements come together to make this a riveting read. The audiobook’s narrator, Carol Monda, was excellent and when I wasn’t listening I was looking for a way to do so.
When a tornado rips through Mercy, Oklahoma, the motherless McCloud children, Tucker, Darlene, Jane, and Cora, are left homeless orphans. Their father is dead, and the home and farm are destroyed. They become known as the saddest family in Mercy.
At 18, Darlene is the oldest and gives up her dream to attend college so she can work and keep the family together. Cora, at 6, is left with only her sibling’s stories of life before the tornado. The first and last memory of her father was the day he died. And then there’s Tucker. “Darlene pictured the funnel cloud roaring through Tucker's mind, scattering the elements of his personality across the landscape, leaving only chaos in his wake.” He soon runs off and the family doesn’t hear from him for years.
On the 3-year anniversary of the tornado, a cosmetic factory is bombed and Tucker reappears, injured and asking for assistance from the now 9-year-old Cora. The impressionable Cora idolizes Tucker and easily falls under his spell when he shares his views on nature and civilization. He has an admirable passion for animals and animal rights but his tactics are extremist and his method of retaliation is eco-terrorism. They go on the run to carry out his mission. Good intentions gone wrong. It's a testament to the author's skill that Tucker is written as a somewhat sympathetic character. It's easy to condemn his methods while sympathizing with his ideology.
Narrated by Cora 40 years after the event, she tells the story of the “summer she disappeared” from her perspective and also from that of her older sister Darlene, giving us a balanced viewpoint. I enjoyed hearing the story from both perspectives, and both characters were well-developed.
The wildlands refers to land that is uncultivated or unfit for cultivation, making it uninhabitable for animals. Human’s desecration of the land is a theme. For the McCloud children, it’s an exploration of the sibling bond and how trauma affects them when their landscape, their family, is destroyed.
Highly recommended!
When a tornado rips through Mercy, Oklahoma, the motherless McCloud children, Tucker, Darlene, Jane, and Cora, are left homeless orphans. Their father is dead, and the home and farm are destroyed. They become known as the saddest family in Mercy.
At 18, Darlene is the oldest and gives up her dream to attend college so she can work and keep the family together. Cora, at 6, is left with only her sibling’s stories of life before the tornado. The first and last memory of her father was the day he died. And then there’s Tucker. “Darlene pictured the funnel cloud roaring through Tucker's mind, scattering the elements of his personality across the landscape, leaving only chaos in his wake.” He soon runs off and the family doesn’t hear from him for years.
On the 3-year anniversary of the tornado, a cosmetic factory is bombed and Tucker reappears, injured and asking for assistance from the now 9-year-old Cora. The impressionable Cora idolizes Tucker and easily falls under his spell when he shares his views on nature and civilization. He has an admirable passion for animals and animal rights but his tactics are extremist and his method of retaliation is eco-terrorism. They go on the run to carry out his mission. Good intentions gone wrong. It's a testament to the author's skill that Tucker is written as a somewhat sympathetic character. It's easy to condemn his methods while sympathizing with his ideology.
Narrated by Cora 40 years after the event, she tells the story of the “summer she disappeared” from her perspective and also from that of her older sister Darlene, giving us a balanced viewpoint. I enjoyed hearing the story from both perspectives, and both characters were well-developed.
The wildlands refers to land that is uncultivated or unfit for cultivation, making it uninhabitable for animals. Human’s desecration of the land is a theme. For the McCloud children, it’s an exploration of the sibling bond and how trauma affects them when their landscape, their family, is destroyed.
Highly recommended!
August 20, 2018
Sometimes it's hard to know how many stars to give a book. Not this time--5 solid stars all the way.
November 28, 2022
What a unique novel! A family is torn apart by a devastating tornado and its aftermath. Geni does a beautiful job portraying the love and conflict within a family.
September 17, 2018
Some of the best contemporary books in literature teach us how to be human. But what does “being human” mean? Are we elevated from the rest of the animal species by our conscience and our ability to feel compassion? Or are we the most selfish and dangerous predators that ever lived, destined to eventually become extinct?
This intelligently-written, page-turning novel provides no easy answers but it does provide much food for thought. Four siblings—Darlene, Tucker, Jane and little Cora become orphans at the start of the book, when a Category 5 tornado wipes out everything they have, turning them into the Saddest Family in Mercy, Oklahoma. Only Tucker believes that the tornado has provided him with the gift of insight. We quickly learn that Tucker becomes an extreme animal activist, liberating animals from deplorable conditions and becoming their avenger. On the lam, he convinces his nine-year-old sister Cora—who has missed him desperately— to join him in his quixotic quest. And here is where the plot truly takes hold.
The plot twists of this novel are organic and heartbreaking and I do not wish to spoil them for other readers. I will, instead, concentrate on the themes, which elevate this novel to one of my top books of the year. Abby Geni performs the amazing feat of having us sympathize with Tucker’s goals—to treat other animal species with respect and dignity—while cringing from his methods and his lack of understanding that animals must be true to their own nature. Trapped between the human and the animal world, Tucker does not truly understand either, and puts both worlds at risk.
What are the Wildlands? Tucker describes it this way: “The old ecosystem was gone. Humans had destroyed it. The Wildlands were something new. ‘Unfit for cultivation.’ That means no people, no civilization. Wild and Tame and Domesticated and Feral—any living thing without a place on the food chain—all the outliers found their way there. All the lost and lonely animals went to the Wildlands.”
What does it mean to be “a creature out of place and out of sync?” How does any outlier—human or animal—adapt to life with all its uncertainties and all its marvels? The last paragraph of this mesmerizing book brought tears to my eyes. Abby Geni keeps getting better and better.
November 21, 2019
Timely. Terrifying. Heartbreaking. Yes, this book with its examination of human impact on the natural world is timely. The wildlife and environmental realities it highlights are terrifying. And the characters – a family of orphans – suffer heartbreaking loss over and over.
There is much to love in this book, which, thematically, is my cuppa: nature-infused and character-driven. I’m not a thriller reader and generally not a fan of first-person narrative (though part of this book is also third-person), so those may be the only trivial reasons this was a 4 vs. a 5 for me.
Even with those tiny nitpicks, I was swept away by the moral questions this book posed, as well as the unspoken questions about human responsibility to the natural world. When does passion for a cause turn dangerous? Does it have to? Can you believe in a thing too strongly? Nature enthusiast that I am, I related in so many ways to Tucker, even if I didn’t agree with his methods of creating awareness.
For those who may not be familiar with the scientific community’s concern about the rapidly changing earth, there are factual lessons within this fictional story that are worth contemplating. Geni, herself, has done a wondrous job of creating awareness without preaching. This is, at its heart, a story about family and devotion.
This is our book club selection (coming up this weekend), and we are going to have plenty to discuss. Can’t wait!
There is much to love in this book, which, thematically, is my cuppa: nature-infused and character-driven. I’m not a thriller reader and generally not a fan of first-person narrative (though part of this book is also third-person), so those may be the only trivial reasons this was a 4 vs. a 5 for me.
Even with those tiny nitpicks, I was swept away by the moral questions this book posed, as well as the unspoken questions about human responsibility to the natural world. When does passion for a cause turn dangerous? Does it have to? Can you believe in a thing too strongly? Nature enthusiast that I am, I related in so many ways to Tucker, even if I didn’t agree with his methods of creating awareness.
For those who may not be familiar with the scientific community’s concern about the rapidly changing earth, there are factual lessons within this fictional story that are worth contemplating. Geni, herself, has done a wondrous job of creating awareness without preaching. This is, at its heart, a story about family and devotion.
This is our book club selection (coming up this weekend), and we are going to have plenty to discuss. Can’t wait!
July 11, 2018
“The Wildlands. Uncultivated land. Cultivation—that’s what humans do.”
Geni’s latest and exciting literary thriller once again examines the liminal space between humans and wildlife, while depicting how compassion can mutate to corruption and danger. In this novel, Geni’s characters are not research biologists and strangers to each other, like in THE LIGHTKEEPERS. In THE WILDLANDS, her characters are four Oklahoma siblings orphaned by a Category 5 tornado, which destroyed their house, massacred their beloved horses and cows, and slayed their father. The trauma to the children have both shared and clashing impacts on their grasp of the future. The slaughter of life—both human and animal--has compromised their trust in benevolence, stripping them of faith in ordinary safety.
The oldest, nineteen-year-old Darlene, a realist, wants to keep the youngest three together with her, and gives up college plans in order to put food on the table. Tucker, the only brother and second oldest, is more of the dreamer, and finds solace in the wild lands beyond their new and shabby trailer home. The youngest, Cora, age six, worships Tucker, who pays close attention to her and includes her in his forays to the fields and wildlife beyond. When he leaves the family and disappears after an angry dispute with Darlene, Cora is stricken. As in THE LIGHTKEEPERS, we begin to comprehend that our true self is often mirrored or altered by the behavior of the humans and animals that we love, protect, confine, exploit, or liberate.
Three years later, Tucker returns with a vengeance and vocation against the injustices to animals by the public. He is on a quest to save the animal kingdom, who he believes are casualties of the human war against them. The bonds of family are tested to terrifying depths, while the pace-perfect, page-turning narrative, in Cora’s now mature voice, also explores the thin but overlapping border between man and beast.
“This is the story of the summer I disappeared,” begins Cora, the first line after the prologue. And, as the pages turn, it becomes apparent that her disappearance is both physical and psychological, under a Svengali-esque influence, as her psyche is subsumed by events that tear the family apart and completely turn her identity inside out. I am hesitant to say more, since I don’t want to ruin even the small discoveries meant for the reader’s eyes.
Part eco-thriller, part suspense thriller, and part domestic thriller, THE WILDLANDS cuts across genres and keeps you emotionally riveted to the characters and plot. The prose is lyrical and poetic, compelling me to re-read passages and paragraphs just for their force and hypnotic beauty. The description of the tornado alone is harrowing and filled with magnificent terror. There’s no filler in the gust of this novel, not one dull page.
Geni’s latest and exciting literary thriller once again examines the liminal space between humans and wildlife, while depicting how compassion can mutate to corruption and danger. In this novel, Geni’s characters are not research biologists and strangers to each other, like in THE LIGHTKEEPERS. In THE WILDLANDS, her characters are four Oklahoma siblings orphaned by a Category 5 tornado, which destroyed their house, massacred their beloved horses and cows, and slayed their father. The trauma to the children have both shared and clashing impacts on their grasp of the future. The slaughter of life—both human and animal--has compromised their trust in benevolence, stripping them of faith in ordinary safety.
The oldest, nineteen-year-old Darlene, a realist, wants to keep the youngest three together with her, and gives up college plans in order to put food on the table. Tucker, the only brother and second oldest, is more of the dreamer, and finds solace in the wild lands beyond their new and shabby trailer home. The youngest, Cora, age six, worships Tucker, who pays close attention to her and includes her in his forays to the fields and wildlife beyond. When he leaves the family and disappears after an angry dispute with Darlene, Cora is stricken. As in THE LIGHTKEEPERS, we begin to comprehend that our true self is often mirrored or altered by the behavior of the humans and animals that we love, protect, confine, exploit, or liberate.
Three years later, Tucker returns with a vengeance and vocation against the injustices to animals by the public. He is on a quest to save the animal kingdom, who he believes are casualties of the human war against them. The bonds of family are tested to terrifying depths, while the pace-perfect, page-turning narrative, in Cora’s now mature voice, also explores the thin but overlapping border between man and beast.
“This is the story of the summer I disappeared,” begins Cora, the first line after the prologue. And, as the pages turn, it becomes apparent that her disappearance is both physical and psychological, under a Svengali-esque influence, as her psyche is subsumed by events that tear the family apart and completely turn her identity inside out. I am hesitant to say more, since I don’t want to ruin even the small discoveries meant for the reader’s eyes.
Part eco-thriller, part suspense thriller, and part domestic thriller, THE WILDLANDS cuts across genres and keeps you emotionally riveted to the characters and plot. The prose is lyrical and poetic, compelling me to re-read passages and paragraphs just for their force and hypnotic beauty. The description of the tornado alone is harrowing and filled with magnificent terror. There’s no filler in the gust of this novel, not one dull page.
May 6, 2018
I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review. She’s done it again! This story of family and relationships is solid, beautiful and raw. I thought there was no way I’d like it as much as The Lightkeepers but I’m so happy I was proved wrong. The natural world is described with such love and attention. Absolutely obsessed!
November 22, 2019
"The Wildlands" is a suspenseful novel about eco-terrorism and sibling bonds. A Category 5 tornado destroys the Oklahoma farm of the McCloud family, and leaves four siblings orphaned. Eighteen-year-old Darlene gives up her dreams of college so she can provide for her siblings. The brother, Tucker, leaves his sisters and becomes involved in eco-terrorism. He returns to town three years later to bomb a cosmetics factory that uses animals to test their products. He kidnaps his nine-year-old sister, Cora, so she can help care for his wounds from the bombing and act as an accomplice. Cora willingly goes at first since Tucker is charismatic, but grows uneasy as the violence escalates. Much of the book is a first person account by Cora as she and Tucker travel, leaving a trail of destruction behind. Cora has identity issues as Tucker cuts her hair and dresses her as a boy so she can pass as his brother. Her initial admiration of her brother turns to confusion and fear.
Tucker's motives were initially good since he can see how humans have hurt animals and damaged the environment. But he becomes very violent, and does not consider whether the domesticated animals can survive on their own after they are released. I enjoyed Tucker's conversations about nature during their road trip, and the family drama in the story. Cora was an especially lovable, precocious nine-year-old--a wonderful character! "The Wildlands" is a well-written book of literary fiction that kept my interest.
Tucker's motives were initially good since he can see how humans have hurt animals and damaged the environment. But he becomes very violent, and does not consider whether the domesticated animals can survive on their own after they are released. I enjoyed Tucker's conversations about nature during their road trip, and the family drama in the story. Cora was an especially lovable, precocious nine-year-old--a wonderful character! "The Wildlands" is a well-written book of literary fiction that kept my interest.
September 6, 2018
The writing was 4 star. But my enjoyment and interest festered rather than bloomed. The emotion that this book seeped- that was probably the 5 star bulls-eye for others. For me it just became almost too off putting for me to continue. I left it after the section titled August for some days. Disturbing and so mean this book! Brutal that tragedy would "explain" or "justify" in this way. To me it is. Sick seeps through this.
She's a talented writer who knows all the human ages. I loved her Lighthouses. In this one she gets 9 years old for one particular little girl extremely well- a 5 star masterful portrayal. But that at the same time was also a crux issue for my being embedded or not. The connection between the little sister and her big brother being so "allowable" for the actions here. Also troublesome and off putting to me was the "eyes" for the animals' treatments and outcomes. Just beyond an outlier or sane acceptance of "real" or their natures- being something that has significant yuck factors in such a crisis type of read.
It starts off beyond tragic. And then Abby Geni seems to proceed to a scenario with two nearly opposite "options" in her protagonists in response. One of both heroic aptitudes and striving for life structure. The other a nihilist brand of almost feral "freedom". One in which for a cause or concern that is "right" and "held supreme as a better" anything goes. Anything. And there aren't any restrictions. No viable such strictures of "allowed" becoming able to be "defined". In simpler words-just a feral "Wildlands" conception of justification and acting for the "wild".
I didn't read any reviews, only noticed all my friends high star ratings. These kinds of themes bother me far more than they do others, I think. As if such actions of this brother's last years have a "value" beyond the outcomes that they cause others? And when they (all that composes that "wild") are expressed in such deep and connective prose copy- it seems to make it a worse "transgression" to me. Not fair to set such picture of ugliness within an exquisite frame? Something like that. Regardless- the psychology of this story was extremely bothersome.
It's also a horror story. And the poor animals. Just in a different set of observations, than say a Stephen King. There you always know the hard from the start and what is sure to be coming.
That ending was 2.5 star at the most as it was detailed. Fiction indeed! As I've been a zoo docent, the maim and death toll in reality would have been multiples higher.
Love the author's word craft. And that it seems all her books are quite different. I did not enjoy the themes of psychosis states of this one much at all. Just in her skill of getting to the core of "wild". She sure did that well. Wild in the sense I would never want to touch.
She's a talented writer who knows all the human ages. I loved her Lighthouses. In this one she gets 9 years old for one particular little girl extremely well- a 5 star masterful portrayal. But that at the same time was also a crux issue for my being embedded or not. The connection between the little sister and her big brother being so "allowable" for the actions here. Also troublesome and off putting to me was the "eyes" for the animals' treatments and outcomes. Just beyond an outlier or sane acceptance of "real" or their natures- being something that has significant yuck factors in such a crisis type of read.
It starts off beyond tragic. And then Abby Geni seems to proceed to a scenario with two nearly opposite "options" in her protagonists in response. One of both heroic aptitudes and striving for life structure. The other a nihilist brand of almost feral "freedom". One in which for a cause or concern that is "right" and "held supreme as a better" anything goes. Anything. And there aren't any restrictions. No viable such strictures of "allowed" becoming able to be "defined". In simpler words-just a feral "Wildlands" conception of justification and acting for the "wild".
I didn't read any reviews, only noticed all my friends high star ratings. These kinds of themes bother me far more than they do others, I think. As if such actions of this brother's last years have a "value" beyond the outcomes that they cause others? And when they (all that composes that "wild") are expressed in such deep and connective prose copy- it seems to make it a worse "transgression" to me. Not fair to set such picture of ugliness within an exquisite frame? Something like that. Regardless- the psychology of this story was extremely bothersome.
It's also a horror story. And the poor animals. Just in a different set of observations, than say a Stephen King. There you always know the hard from the start and what is sure to be coming.
That ending was 2.5 star at the most as it was detailed. Fiction indeed! As I've been a zoo docent, the maim and death toll in reality would have been multiples higher.
Love the author's word craft. And that it seems all her books are quite different. I did not enjoy the themes of psychosis states of this one much at all. Just in her skill of getting to the core of "wild". She sure did that well. Wild in the sense I would never want to touch.
July 6, 2018
Solid 4.5 and I'm not sure myself why I didn't add that extra 1/2 point. (Well, I do, but...) "Wildlands" is every bit as well-written and engaging as "Lightkeepers," but quite different in subject, tone, and atmosphere. As other reviewers have pointed out, the book begins with catastrophe: a tornado that suddenly touches down in a small Oklahoma town (ironically named "Mercy") and leaves four children -- siblings of different ages -- homeless and orphaned, their dreams shattered, their bonds to each other and society suddenly made fragile. From this dark beginning Geni deftly leads the reader on an exploration of the boundaries that define us, the ones we are born into and the ones we create: familial, social, gender, identity, wild/domesticated, race, impulse vs. self-control, even life and death.
The title serves several purposes. Technically, as we learn about a third of the way through the book, the word refers to "land that is uncultivated or unfit for cultivation." It is the farmstead settled by Sooners who broke the rules before Oklahoma was admitted into the Union. It also denotes the safe life within the borders of the family farm that will be shattered, leaving the characters to become known locally and nationally as "the saddest family in Mercy." But the word takes on additional meanings as the story progresses. "Wildlands" is cast as "a home for strays and runaways. All the refugees of this war... 'Unfit for cultivation.' That means no people, no civilization. Wild and Tame and Domesticated and Feral -- any living thing without a place of the food chain -- all the outliers found their way there. All the lost and lonely animals went to the Wildlands." It is also a state of being: "neither one thing nor the other, without a place in the world." Over the course of the book, this vision will play out in many ways, both tender and violent. It is an agricultural term, a state of mind, a character trait, a dream, a way of life. It's an idea the reader holds onto as he/she evaluates the decisions the characters make -- and the decisions that are made for them.
I do no justice to the thematic complexities of the book or its richness. Those failings are mine. Read the book. It will speak quite eloquently for itself.
The title serves several purposes. Technically, as we learn about a third of the way through the book, the word refers to "land that is uncultivated or unfit for cultivation." It is the farmstead settled by Sooners who broke the rules before Oklahoma was admitted into the Union. It also denotes the safe life within the borders of the family farm that will be shattered, leaving the characters to become known locally and nationally as "the saddest family in Mercy." But the word takes on additional meanings as the story progresses. "Wildlands" is cast as "a home for strays and runaways. All the refugees of this war... 'Unfit for cultivation.' That means no people, no civilization. Wild and Tame and Domesticated and Feral -- any living thing without a place of the food chain -- all the outliers found their way there. All the lost and lonely animals went to the Wildlands." It is also a state of being: "neither one thing nor the other, without a place in the world." Over the course of the book, this vision will play out in many ways, both tender and violent. It is an agricultural term, a state of mind, a character trait, a dream, a way of life. It's an idea the reader holds onto as he/she evaluates the decisions the characters make -- and the decisions that are made for them.
I do no justice to the thematic complexities of the book or its richness. Those failings are mine. Read the book. It will speak quite eloquently for itself.
January 17, 2019
Thank you so much Counterpoint Press for my free copy of THE WILDLANDS -
I was blown away by this magnificent novel. The characters are so well developed you can picture them sitting next to you.
In Mercy, Oklahoma a category 5 tornado strikes leaving the McCloud children orphaned and living in a trailer. The children, Cora, Jane, Darlene, and Tucker, are all that’s left and need to figure out how to survive on their own. Tucker has always been unusual but after the storm it’s like something has come unhinged. While Darlene, the eldest, is trying to figure out how to keep what’s left of the family together and food on the table, Tucker takes off. He appears later after a cosmetics factory gets bombed and all the animals are set free. He needs help, kidnaps Cora and takes her away with him on an adventure of violence, mayhem, and retribution. Beside herself, Darlene entrusts the police to help find Tucker and Cora who end up being located at a California zoo. Tucker’s mission is to set all the animals free as he sees their captivity as an act of war.
Geni’s prose is exquisite, razor sharp, and luminous. The way Geni describes animals is beautiful and poetic - I found myself reading passages over and over again. The narrative that is specifically told through Cora’s eyes is both intensely captivating and completely terrifying. We switch between Cora’s experience with Tucker, and Darlene’s struggle to keep the family afloat. Nine-year-old Cora is clearly an innocent in all of this, and while Tucker is undeniably flawed, there is something endearing about his beliefs and deep love for animals. It’s astounding that Geni could write such a sympathetic character who utilizes such horrific methodology. The way Geni brilliantly combines an intelligent thriller with a philosophical view of nature is absolutely incredible.
I was blown away by this magnificent novel. The characters are so well developed you can picture them sitting next to you.
In Mercy, Oklahoma a category 5 tornado strikes leaving the McCloud children orphaned and living in a trailer. The children, Cora, Jane, Darlene, and Tucker, are all that’s left and need to figure out how to survive on their own. Tucker has always been unusual but after the storm it’s like something has come unhinged. While Darlene, the eldest, is trying to figure out how to keep what’s left of the family together and food on the table, Tucker takes off. He appears later after a cosmetics factory gets bombed and all the animals are set free. He needs help, kidnaps Cora and takes her away with him on an adventure of violence, mayhem, and retribution. Beside herself, Darlene entrusts the police to help find Tucker and Cora who end up being located at a California zoo. Tucker’s mission is to set all the animals free as he sees their captivity as an act of war.
Geni’s prose is exquisite, razor sharp, and luminous. The way Geni describes animals is beautiful and poetic - I found myself reading passages over and over again. The narrative that is specifically told through Cora’s eyes is both intensely captivating and completely terrifying. We switch between Cora’s experience with Tucker, and Darlene’s struggle to keep the family afloat. Nine-year-old Cora is clearly an innocent in all of this, and while Tucker is undeniably flawed, there is something endearing about his beliefs and deep love for animals. It’s astounding that Geni could write such a sympathetic character who utilizes such horrific methodology. The way Geni brilliantly combines an intelligent thriller with a philosophical view of nature is absolutely incredible.
November 3, 2018
This COULD have been a really good book ... worthy of the ratings that so many people have heaped on it in their reviews. The plot was sinister, some of the characters likable and really deep (Roy and Darlene), and the plot of environmental terrorism a current topic, worthy of exploration.
What happened along the way, I don't know. The author gives credit to her editor who "knows everything," but apparently he doesn't know geography. First of all, Abby, there are no saguaro cacti in the Texas panhandle ... you've seen too many westerns. Secondly, there are no mountains visible from Amarillo. Thirdly, there is no "desolation" to be seen across the Red River into Texas. Your characters were supposedly going west, but Sweetwater is well southeast of Amarillo. When a book is that poorly sourced and researched, it means is was rushed, which means plot holes large enough to drive a car through.
By the end, I couldn't decide whether I was reading a novel or watching the Hallmark Channel. For example, Cora wanted to get away from her brother -- why not just walk away? Easy -- it didn't fit the plot. How was it Tucker could hot-wire any car in Oklahoma and Texas? Were these vehicles from the '70s or was Tucker more like "The Terminator?" Answer? It fit the plot.
By the end eco-attack on the Pacific Zoo (San Diego?), I was predicting every Hallmark turn of the plot. The author had to end the book by putting epilogue decades into the future. What? Oh, yeah, the author wanted to tie up every loose end. The problem was, the book was a book of loose ends.
I started reading this book with high expectations, but feel it was a book that never found its way.
What happened along the way, I don't know. The author gives credit to her editor who "knows everything," but apparently he doesn't know geography. First of all, Abby, there are no saguaro cacti in the Texas panhandle ... you've seen too many westerns. Secondly, there are no mountains visible from Amarillo. Thirdly, there is no "desolation" to be seen across the Red River into Texas. Your characters were supposedly going west, but Sweetwater is well southeast of Amarillo. When a book is that poorly sourced and researched, it means is was rushed, which means plot holes large enough to drive a car through.
By the end, I couldn't decide whether I was reading a novel or watching the Hallmark Channel. For example, Cora wanted to get away from her brother -- why not just walk away? Easy -- it didn't fit the plot. How was it Tucker could hot-wire any car in Oklahoma and Texas? Were these vehicles from the '70s or was Tucker more like "The Terminator?" Answer? It fit the plot.
By the end eco-attack on the Pacific Zoo (San Diego?), I was predicting every Hallmark turn of the plot. The author had to end the book by putting epilogue decades into the future. What? Oh, yeah, the author wanted to tie up every loose end. The problem was, the book was a book of loose ends.
I started reading this book with high expectations, but feel it was a book that never found its way.
July 21, 2019
Without question, this novel was one of the most well written, yet disturbing stories I have ever encountered. Built on a foundation of a horrific natural disaster in the form of an F-5 tornado and the resultant human sorrows that occurred in its aftermath, the author unfolds the consequent tale in equal parts measured horror and an almost otherworldly realism...I am honestly still deciding how to wrap my mind around its many thought provoking themes.
December 2, 2018
Stunning and unforgettable.
October 1, 2018
i really liked this. it is a grim read but so well told that it was easy to keep reading. after a deadly tornado leaves 4 siblings orphaned the family quickly fractures. told from different perspectives this story unfolds as tucker & his younger sister hit the interstate & attempt to elude the police. tucker is an eco terrorist who lives somewhere in between the animal & human world. he is out of sync & troubled but his younger sister cora is fiercely bonded to him. as a coming of age story this hurts a bit; as cora's awareness of her brother's flaws (& later) of her older sister's sacrifices come into focus i began to actually feel the circumstances shaping cora's identity.
September 16, 2018
I can’t say enough about this novel. It blends a unique and exciting plot with wonderful fully developed characters. Abby Geni has an amazing way of being descriptive, particularly bringing animals and nature to life in a way that I could visualize them. She does this seamlessly without slowing the story down at all. I loved this novel so much than I immediately purchased her prior novel, The Lightkeepers.
November 11, 2018
This is one I can tell I will be thinking about for a long long time. So powerful and thoughtful and unsettling and lovely.
September 21, 2020
3|5
- Book Riots 2020 Read Harder Challenge - 5.Read a book about a natural disaster -
- Book Riots 2020 Read Harder Challenge - 5.Read a book about a natural disaster -
October 21, 2018
My review from USA Today
*
From the moment Abby Geni’s second novel starts, you know you’re in good hands. She’s describing the surreal effects of a tornado in a small Oklahoma town. A bird flies backwards; an umbrella turns a couple times, then floats “straight into the sky, rising like a UFO.” What an image! For the McClouds, who lose their father, this sense of unreality persists past the storm. Out of their loss, Geni spins a careful, humane, moving story, centered primarily on the youngest McCloud, Cora, who finds her missing older brother Tucker just when he needs her most, and she needs him least. “The Wildlands” is a dense, slow-moving novel, but one filled with rewards for the patient reader – in its best sections, the most responsible McCloud, Darlene, who has forfeited her dreams for her siblings, searches for green shoots of possibility in a life dominated by poverty and hard work. America, Geni argues, shouldn’t demand so much heroism of its people. Many give it anyway.
*
From the moment Abby Geni’s second novel starts, you know you’re in good hands. She’s describing the surreal effects of a tornado in a small Oklahoma town. A bird flies backwards; an umbrella turns a couple times, then floats “straight into the sky, rising like a UFO.” What an image! For the McClouds, who lose their father, this sense of unreality persists past the storm. Out of their loss, Geni spins a careful, humane, moving story, centered primarily on the youngest McCloud, Cora, who finds her missing older brother Tucker just when he needs her most, and she needs him least. “The Wildlands” is a dense, slow-moving novel, but one filled with rewards for the patient reader – in its best sections, the most responsible McCloud, Darlene, who has forfeited her dreams for her siblings, searches for green shoots of possibility in a life dominated by poverty and hard work. America, Geni argues, shouldn’t demand so much heroism of its people. Many give it anyway.
September 28, 2019
I read this novel for a reading group. When we discussed it last week we all agreed that it started out rather unimpressive, got better as it went along, then became totally gripping and had a perfect ending.
The McCloud family of Mercy, Oklahoma, lost every bit of their home and farm due to a Category Five tornado. The four siblings had already lost their mother at the birth of the youngest; their father disappeared without a trace in the tornado. Darlene, the eldest, was left with no choice but to give up her dream of college and take care of Tucker, Jane and Cora.
Tucker soon took off. Darlene worked at the local grocery store while Jane and Cora went to school. All of them were crammed into a rundown motor home living in near poverty.
After a year, Tucker resurfaces, having become an eco-terrorist. He lures 9 year old Cora to join him on a cross-country mission to wreak havoc on those who mistreat animals.
I felt the author took too long setting up the story with a tightly controlled narrative style, telling rather than showing the extreme emotional distress of these siblings. Once Cora leaves with Tucker the pace and style of the story picked up.
It was then I saw that Darlene's tightly controlling nature had been the voice of that first part. When Tucker is in control of the story, it gets progressively wilder and crazy. Darlene's life then becomes a desperate search for her abducted sister.
I have read novels about eco-terrorism before. Like any terrorist, a madness takes over with such characters. The author got that exactly right with Tucker. You don't know until the very last chapters whether Cora will survive the madness or perish.
All in all, a great read with a well-constructed plot.
The McCloud family of Mercy, Oklahoma, lost every bit of their home and farm due to a Category Five tornado. The four siblings had already lost their mother at the birth of the youngest; their father disappeared without a trace in the tornado. Darlene, the eldest, was left with no choice but to give up her dream of college and take care of Tucker, Jane and Cora.
Tucker soon took off. Darlene worked at the local grocery store while Jane and Cora went to school. All of them were crammed into a rundown motor home living in near poverty.
After a year, Tucker resurfaces, having become an eco-terrorist. He lures 9 year old Cora to join him on a cross-country mission to wreak havoc on those who mistreat animals.
I felt the author took too long setting up the story with a tightly controlled narrative style, telling rather than showing the extreme emotional distress of these siblings. Once Cora leaves with Tucker the pace and style of the story picked up.
It was then I saw that Darlene's tightly controlling nature had been the voice of that first part. When Tucker is in control of the story, it gets progressively wilder and crazy. Darlene's life then becomes a desperate search for her abducted sister.
I have read novels about eco-terrorism before. Like any terrorist, a madness takes over with such characters. The author got that exactly right with Tucker. You don't know until the very last chapters whether Cora will survive the madness or perish.
All in all, a great read with a well-constructed plot.
July 18, 2019
I’ve previously read and loved Abby Geni’s short story collection, The Last Animal and her debut novel, The Lightkeepers. So I was very excited to get to this and I’m glad to report that it was worth a read. The Wildlands, to me, felt like a slight deviant from her usual style. While the inherent theme of environment and relationship to the natural world remain the focus, her stories, usually more personal, literary and character driven, in this however, was much more plot focussed, in the style of a page turner, and more simply written. I’m not sure if that was a conscious choice by the author to better fit into the ‘thriller’ genre but to me, that was a slight let-down. In the Wildlands, she also dialled up the human impact to environment, presenting a social cause and making it personal.
~
The plotline follows the life of 4 siblings, orphaned after a category 5 tornado devastates and destroys their home, taking away the life of their father, having already lost their mother. Darlene the eldest, quickly rises to look after her younger siblings and foregoes her aspirations to attend University, instead taking a job and being the sole breadwinner of the family. A massive fight between the Tucker, the second eldest sibling and Darlene, spirals out of control and Tucker leaves his sisters for good. Most of the story is narrated from the youngest, 9 year old Cora’s perspective. Cora has a very special bond with her brother, and his reappearance under unusual circumstances convinces Cora to tag along with Tucker on a mission that she doesn’t really understand. The consequence of Tucker’s actions, to which Cora becomes an unintentional accomplice, and Darlene’s efforts to retrace Cora’s whereabouts and rescue her, is the central crux of the story.
~
Geni shines in the description of the natural world and the plot was certainly engaging, but ultimately for me, it didn’t create the magic that The Lightkeepers did. Geni, in this explores the idea of how extreme faith in a cause, however noble, can tip over and become toxic, fanatic, with one losing one’s sense of reason. Tucker’s love for the animals, and the wild, and his hate for human race as the cause of that destruction becomes more and more radical as the novel progresses. The unnatural hold he has over Cora, her thoughts and interpretations was uncomfortable to read. Certain plot points seemed unrealistic to me, and Tucker’s cynical voice at times was a little too heavy-handed bordering on being ‘preachy’ than engaging. The final ‘event’ that Tucker is involved in seemed too far-fetched and reasoning for it didn’t entirely make sense. Another minor qualm was that, Jane, the third sibling could have been removed from the book to no consequence.
~
The Wildlands is an interesting, ecological thriller that is worth a read. However, if you’ve never tried Abby Geni, I’d certainly recommend The Lightkeepers over this one.
~
3.5/5
~
The plotline follows the life of 4 siblings, orphaned after a category 5 tornado devastates and destroys their home, taking away the life of their father, having already lost their mother. Darlene the eldest, quickly rises to look after her younger siblings and foregoes her aspirations to attend University, instead taking a job and being the sole breadwinner of the family. A massive fight between the Tucker, the second eldest sibling and Darlene, spirals out of control and Tucker leaves his sisters for good. Most of the story is narrated from the youngest, 9 year old Cora’s perspective. Cora has a very special bond with her brother, and his reappearance under unusual circumstances convinces Cora to tag along with Tucker on a mission that she doesn’t really understand. The consequence of Tucker’s actions, to which Cora becomes an unintentional accomplice, and Darlene’s efforts to retrace Cora’s whereabouts and rescue her, is the central crux of the story.
~
Geni shines in the description of the natural world and the plot was certainly engaging, but ultimately for me, it didn’t create the magic that The Lightkeepers did. Geni, in this explores the idea of how extreme faith in a cause, however noble, can tip over and become toxic, fanatic, with one losing one’s sense of reason. Tucker’s love for the animals, and the wild, and his hate for human race as the cause of that destruction becomes more and more radical as the novel progresses. The unnatural hold he has over Cora, her thoughts and interpretations was uncomfortable to read. Certain plot points seemed unrealistic to me, and Tucker’s cynical voice at times was a little too heavy-handed bordering on being ‘preachy’ than engaging. The final ‘event’ that Tucker is involved in seemed too far-fetched and reasoning for it didn’t entirely make sense. Another minor qualm was that, Jane, the third sibling could have been removed from the book to no consequence.
~
The Wildlands is an interesting, ecological thriller that is worth a read. However, if you’ve never tried Abby Geni, I’d certainly recommend The Lightkeepers over this one.
~
3.5/5
September 25, 2018
I started this book after takeoff from Sydney headed for San Francisco. I finished an hour after we passed over Hawaii. It’s not a page turner in the sense that you have to keep reading to find out what happens next – it is simply an engrossing, compelling, compassionate story that is hard to put down.
Three years before the story begins a deadly tornado rips through Mercy, Oklahoma, The four McCloud children, Darlene, Tucker, Jane and Cora are orphaned. Nineteen year old Darlene has to give up her plans for college so she can keep the family together, with help from 17 year old Tucker. But three months later, after an argument with Darlene, Tucker runs away.
When he returns three years later, he is an eco-terrorist on a mission. He persuades his youngest sister Cora to join him. The story is told with an alternating point of view: the adult Cora, looking back on “that summer when she disappeared,” and Darlene as she struggles to rescue her sister and stop her brother from doing any more damage.
Tucker believes that man is destroying the world. He’s all for the animals. He’s a zealot. And he does a lot of bad things, not the least of which is putting his innocent younger sister at great risk. It’s not easy to empathize with a character like Tucker or his cause. But Geni, to her great credit, allows us to see beyond the surface of Tucker’s madness. We get an appreciation for his cause, even if we don't totally support it, or agree with his methods.
The true hero of this story is Darlene. She sacrifices the future she had planned to keep her siblings together.
THE WILDLANDS is a story of survival on many levels. Geni manages to impart a ton of information on the relationship between man and animals. The knowledge isn’t force-fed, this is not a polemic, but I came away feeling like I had learned something. The story moved me and it made me think. Can’t ask for more than that. Highly recommended.
Three years before the story begins a deadly tornado rips through Mercy, Oklahoma, The four McCloud children, Darlene, Tucker, Jane and Cora are orphaned. Nineteen year old Darlene has to give up her plans for college so she can keep the family together, with help from 17 year old Tucker. But three months later, after an argument with Darlene, Tucker runs away.
When he returns three years later, he is an eco-terrorist on a mission. He persuades his youngest sister Cora to join him. The story is told with an alternating point of view: the adult Cora, looking back on “that summer when she disappeared,” and Darlene as she struggles to rescue her sister and stop her brother from doing any more damage.
Tucker believes that man is destroying the world. He’s all for the animals. He’s a zealot. And he does a lot of bad things, not the least of which is putting his innocent younger sister at great risk. It’s not easy to empathize with a character like Tucker or his cause. But Geni, to her great credit, allows us to see beyond the surface of Tucker’s madness. We get an appreciation for his cause, even if we don't totally support it, or agree with his methods.
The true hero of this story is Darlene. She sacrifices the future she had planned to keep her siblings together.
THE WILDLANDS is a story of survival on many levels. Geni manages to impart a ton of information on the relationship between man and animals. The knowledge isn’t force-fed, this is not a polemic, but I came away feeling like I had learned something. The story moved me and it made me think. Can’t ask for more than that. Highly recommended.
September 12, 2018
Another solid novel from Abby Geni centered on the interactions between humans and the natural world.
The McClouds’ lives change forever when a horrific tornado rips though their Oklahoma home, leaving the four children orphaned. Tucker, the second oldest, runs away shortly after, and resurfaces a few years later to commit an act of environmental terrorism on a nearby cosmetics factory.
Nine-year-old Cora has always felt a special bond with her brother, and leaves home to accompany him on the run. But Cora doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into, and soon becomes Tucker’s unwitting accomplice as he moves on to other targets. Eventually she must reconcile her deep love for her brother with the apprehension she feels about this new life.
Like in her previous novel, The Lightkeepers, Geni is so adept at establishing vivid settings and ominous atmospheres. Some of her best writing comes at the end, when Tucker and Cora take on their biggest target yet.
The Wildlands is a thrilling pageturner that explores the bonds between siblings, the forces that drive the most extreme actions, and the relationships between humans and animals.
The McClouds’ lives change forever when a horrific tornado rips though their Oklahoma home, leaving the four children orphaned. Tucker, the second oldest, runs away shortly after, and resurfaces a few years later to commit an act of environmental terrorism on a nearby cosmetics factory.
Nine-year-old Cora has always felt a special bond with her brother, and leaves home to accompany him on the run. But Cora doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into, and soon becomes Tucker’s unwitting accomplice as he moves on to other targets. Eventually she must reconcile her deep love for her brother with the apprehension she feels about this new life.
Like in her previous novel, The Lightkeepers, Geni is so adept at establishing vivid settings and ominous atmospheres. Some of her best writing comes at the end, when Tucker and Cora take on their biggest target yet.
The Wildlands is a thrilling pageturner that explores the bonds between siblings, the forces that drive the most extreme actions, and the relationships between humans and animals.
January 2, 2019
To be blunt Wildlands is not enjoyable. It tells a story, sure, but it doesn't go anywhere.
It's very strange how the story is focused on a broken family in the South and yet does not pull you into a story of emotion. It's the opposite. There is such a lack of meaningful emotion in this book and everything is described in a bleak regard. To be honest the story never evolves into anything remotely interesting. It's just the same wavelength the whole way through, no real changes or shifts. Can't wrap my head around why some many people seem to like this literary journey.
And to add on to all that, the way the two main sisters talk about their brother is very weird. In the story they describe his features and mannerisms with so much lust, it's odd and off-putting. All which makes the reading experience more cringe worthy and messy. Just like the tornado.
It's very strange how the story is focused on a broken family in the South and yet does not pull you into a story of emotion. It's the opposite. There is such a lack of meaningful emotion in this book and everything is described in a bleak regard. To be honest the story never evolves into anything remotely interesting. It's just the same wavelength the whole way through, no real changes or shifts. Can't wrap my head around why some many people seem to like this literary journey.
And to add on to all that, the way the two main sisters talk about their brother is very weird. In the story they describe his features and mannerisms with so much lust, it's odd and off-putting. All which makes the reading experience more cringe worthy and messy. Just like the tornado.
September 6, 2020
I am a huge fan of Abby Geni. I read her two previous books and loved them A LOT. This one was not exactly my kind of book but I decided I wanted to read it anyway, because of the author.. and I got to understanding her a bit more I think.. she has a huge sensibility to the animal world.. and while I could sense it in her other books, it was a lot stronger here. The author's writing is superb, and I admire her even more than before. So five stars for the writing, story and characterization, three stars for my personal enjoyment.
If the blurb is appealing to you, the book wouldn't be a disappointment. Also.. I listened to the audio version and I didn't care much for the reader so maybe it didn't help..
If the blurb is appealing to you, the book wouldn't be a disappointment. Also.. I listened to the audio version and I didn't care much for the reader so maybe it didn't help..
December 23, 2018
I liked this but it feels like it took forever for me to finish it.
The strange adventures of a 9 year old girl, kidnapped (willingly) by her older brother who is an animal rights activist and their crime spree across America. Meanwhile her sister tries to locate them.
Reminded me a little of a book I read years ago where a chimp was raised as member of the family (We are All Completely Beside Ourselves) and also a little bit of Fierce Kingdom.
The strange adventures of a 9 year old girl, kidnapped (willingly) by her older brother who is an animal rights activist and their crime spree across America. Meanwhile her sister tries to locate them.
Reminded me a little of a book I read years ago where a chimp was raised as member of the family (We are All Completely Beside Ourselves) and also a little bit of Fierce Kingdom.
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